Sunday, July 13, 2008

Spinners

What I love about the book, is the way it got me speculating, on what 'legend' it was based, until almost to the very end. Maybe it is because of the fact that I have never read any of Donna Jo Napoli's other works. I never knew that she is reinventing the old fairytales and makes them new and fascinating reads. (okay, I am not saying that the fairytales we all loved when we were little are boringÜ) So, in effect, I kept on guessing until the very last part and that resulted in my 21st book! yay! haha

According to a review in Amazon.com:

In Spinners, she and coauthor Richard Tchen weave a tale of a young tailor whocripples himself while spinning gold thread on a magic wheel to win hisbeloved's hand. Spurned for his ugliness, he watches her marry the miller anddie giving birth to the child he knows is his own. The girl grows up to become amaster spinner, but only when the cruel young king commands her to spin strawinto gold do we begin to sense a creeping familiarity. When a deformed mandemands her firstborn child as a return for spinning the gold, we are almostsure. But not until the very last, when to save her baby the young mother mustguess her unknown father's secret name, do we, like her, know that this isRumpelstiltskin, of whom we've heard tell long ago. In Napoli's story-spinninghands, however, Rumpelstiltskin is not a spiteful dwarf but a lonely outcastyearning for the love of his grandchild; rather than a hand- wringing victim,the young queen shows herself to be a strong and resourceful survivor given toimaginative solutions. (Ages 12 to 16) --Patty Campbell

Unfortunately, the end was something like a let down. Well, not exactly the end, but the events leading to it. They had this rushed feel in them. I agree with the other reviews piosted in Amazon.com that the other three-quarters of the book is better and the final part does not 'compensate' (sorry for the wordÜ).